English

Coarse length can be unbounded in 3-step nilpotent Lie groups

Group Theory 2025-07-15 v1

Abstract

In "On the asymptotics of the growth of 2-step nilpotent groups" (J. London Math. Soc. (2), 58 (1998)), we remarked that, contrary to 2-step nilpotent simply connected Lie groups, in 3-step nilpotent simply connected Lie groups it is possible that `R\mathbb{R}-words' in the given generators cannot be replaced by an equally long R\mathbb{R}-word representing the same group element and having a bounded number of direction changes. In this note, we present an example for this phenomenon.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2507.10408,
  title  = {Coarse length can be unbounded in 3-step nilpotent Lie groups},
  author = {Michael Stoll},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2507.10408},
  year   = {2025}
}

Comments

Note originally from 2010; slightly edited

R2 v1 2026-07-01T04:00:11.997Z